Last year, Deborah Lynn, a former senior executive in a cutting-edge high tech industry, dropped her career like a hot rock to become a single mother at 45—through a sperm donor. Why would any woman give up a lucrative job and a comfortable lifestyle to become society’s stereotypical whipping girl—a single mother? Unlike the classic […]

If you think “procreational ageism”—social prejudice against women becoming mothers due to their age—existed only for those over 40 seeking ART, think again. According to Christina Haltom-Farrar, who became an adoptive mother at 48, criticism of older mothers within the adoption industry is alive and kicking. “On adoption message boards, the subject of ‘how old […]

It was just after turning 40 that Sue Collier—CEO of a self publishing company in Denver, CO—“woke up” and began to panic about whether she’d ever conceive a baby. Although Collier had “married late at 35,” she was in the midst of building her business (see below) and wasn’t quite ready to get pregnant. “But […]

The big news about Nicole Kidman becoming a mother at 43 through a surrogate is another welcome example of modern mothers’ liberation at the hands of medical science. But, as the media popularize stories of celebrities conceiving through ART, are they inadvertently sending a negative message? Should we stop trusting our bodies to conceive after […]

Diane Hartford-Shulert—a midlife mother from Michigan who will turn 45 on Valentine’s Day—is living proof that what doesn’t kill you will make you strong. In fact, her story is so rife with seemingly insuperable challenges that it reads like the opening scene to The Princess Bride (1987 film): “Are you kidding? Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Revenge. […]

Given the recent announcement that a geriatric Hugh Hefner has just loosened the leash on his lounging gown to receive yet another nubile young wife, one wonders if more than love is in the air. Is Hef out to reclaim his reputation for virility at 84 by fathering a baby bunny or two? Suspicions have […]

This morning, as I lay on the floor virtually gasping with a sprig of mistletoe between my teeth (left over from a tree clean-up operation befitting a park ranger crew), I assessed this year’s bout of post-holiday-traumatic-stress-syndrome. I realized I’m in serious danger of walking into the light and losing my dreams. Knowing that the […]

This was one of my first blogs about midlife motherhood after launching Flower Power Mom in 2009. Little did I know how it would come to symbolize a cardinal truth about motherhood after 40–the extremely emotional culture shock of trading a business career for a domestic one. In 2008, we bought a big old house […]